John Adams Elementary abuzz with science info
Students engage all five senses while learning about beekeeping
BY JENNIFER AMATO Staff Writer

JENNIFER AMATO Cliff Wright-Sunflower brought in some of the bees that live on his farm in Pennsylvania to show students at John Adams Elementary School in North Brunswick how bees make their honeycombs.

NORTH BRUNSWICK - Students were definitely told to not mind their own beeswax during an assembly at John Adams Elementary School last week.

Beekeeper Cliff Wright-Sunflower encouraged the students to look, listen, touch, smell and taste all things related to bees and honey during a presentation and workshop session, sponsored by the school's Parent-Teacher Association.

The first part of the show was an interactive, imaginary trip into a swamp on Wright-Sunflower's Bear Honey Farms in Bath, Penn., where the students met a bear eating a wild honeybee hive that lives in an old oak tree. Sunflower has the students play the roles of all the involved characters, such as the queen bee, the nursemaids, the brood, construction workers, drones, guards and flowers. They learn about how the colony functions and about the process of pollination, while doing the "dance of the honeybees."

JENNIFER AMATO Gloves and a protective mask are just some of the equipment pieces beekeepers wear when retrieving honey from beehives.

After the group of 300 students went back to their classrooms, Wright-Sunflower invited smaller groups to peruse through various stations he set up in the cafeteria.

Station one was a manmade beehive box that beekeepers use to retrieve honey. Each section slid out for the students to hold, and they could see the hexagonal honeycomb formed inside.

Station two had a beehive inside of a tree trunk, which Wright-Sunflower had cut from a tree. There were pieces of the comb, which is waxy, and the wood smelled like flowers.

There was also information about wasps, which include hornets and yellow jackets. Wright-Sunflower provided examples of a wasp's nest, to show the difference between them and bees. A wasp chews wood and cardboard and eats insects. Their nest appears more papery and is usually found more frequently and low to the ground. He also said wasps sting in order to paralyze their prey, which is why they can sting more than once; bees die after their stinger is removed.

Station three was an actual box that had honeybees inside, buzzing around as they made honey in their comb.

There is only one queen per hive, who lays 1,000 eggs per day, and she is noticeable by her darker thorax and longer abdomen.

The fatter, fuzzier bees with big eyes are male drones that mate with the queen.

The female drones, or worker bees, work their entire lives to gather pollen, or "flower dust," and nectar, or "pollen smell" or "flower juice," from flowers to pollinate other flowers, which in turn helps produce food for humans. The honey is made from the sweat of the bees.

Wright-Sunflower explained there are also guard bees,which protect the hive, field bees that collect the honey, and funeral bees that carry out the dead ones.

Station four displayed a beekeeper's equipment, such as smokers, hats, gloves and a suit. There were also pictures of Wright-Sunflower with his sons on their farm.

Station five described the five eyes of a bee: two compound and tree singles. There were little devices that students could hold to their eyes to see the distorted image bees see as they fly around.

Station six was a collection of beeswax and honey products, including different types of honey the students could taste, beeswax candles, and edible pollen that can be used on yogurt, salad and cereal. All of the products came fromWright-Sunflower's farm.

The beekeeper said that honey is the only naturally processed sweetener, and that it can be put on fruit, ice cream, pancakes, tea or eaten plain, especially since it helps combat against flower allergies.

On the table was also a photograph of Wright-Sunflower with 35,000 bees on his chin.He said he put a queen there,which attracted the rest of the swarm. However, he said they hung there for one hour and he did not get stung once, showing the docile nature of bees.

This prompted him to explain his reasoning for his entire presentation: do not kill bees. He told the students they could make their own beeswax candle as long as they promised to find a creative way to help protect honeybees.

"If the bees die and they don't pollinate flowers and there are no flowers to make food and there is no food, what happens to you?" he asked the students, implying that humans can be severely affected by the destruction of bee colonies.

Noting how New Jersey lost 49 percent of its bee population last year due to pesticides and mites, Wright-Sunflower told the students they could hand out fliers in their neighborhoods, have pledges signed, create a story, skit or video or build awooden box that is 1 footwide, 1 foot long and 2 feet highwith 1-inch holes for the bees to live in, hung 15 feet high.

"I want you guys to help me save the bees," he said.

For information or to schedule a presentation, visit www.CliffSunflower.com.